Matthew Richard Walker

A former Republic Airlines pilot has pleaded guilty to threatening to torture and kill the company’s CEO and his family. The U.S. attorney’s office says 37-year-old Matthew Richard Walker, of Faribault, Minn., entered the plea Monday in federal court in Kansas City. Prosecutors said one threatening letter was discovered in August 2012 in the cockpit of an aircraft that was parked at Reagan National Airport in Washington.